AI Decodes 400-Year-Old Vatican Cipher, Reveals Historic Secrets
TL;DR. Researchers used machine learning to decipher a 408-page Vatican manuscript, revealing medieval remedies and historical knowledge. - The Borg cipher, unreadable for centuries, contained coded medical treatments and other secret information. - This AI-assisted process involved computational linguistics to unlock the complex encryption. - Efforts are now underway to apply similar AI techniques to other historic ciphers globally.
- A 408-page manuscript, known as the Borg cipher, had remained undeciphered for over 400 years in the Vatican Library.
- Researchers, including Professor Beáta Megyesi, employed machine learning and computational linguistics to decode the complex script, which included 34 obscure symbols.
- The decoded text revealed thousands of bizarre medieval remedies and other historical insights, previously kept secret.
- This success demonstrates AI's potential to unlock vast amounts of encrypted historical information in archives worldwide.
- The project highlights how AI can rewrite historical narratives by revealing unknown details about past individuals or periods.